Manatos & Manatos (M&M) is a government relations and public policy company in Washington D.C. which utilizes established relationships of trust to deliver powerful results for clients; provides clients with a unique, high-level personal commitment; and develops creative solutions to difficult problems.

Remembering Manatos Family Friend and President John F. Kennedy

Mike Manatos (far right) with President Kennedy

November 22, 2013

On the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy‘s passing, Manatos & Manatos remembers him with great warmth and affection. One of the firm’s founders, Mike Manatos (1914 – 1983), considered him a friend. Manatos knew Kennedy as a US Senator and then served as one of President Kennedy’s top White House assistants in charge of US Senate Liaison. The firm’s other founder, Andy Manatos, who was 19 years-old at the time, was an admiring acquaintance.

Mike Manatos with President Kennedy

As many Americans also feel, the Manatoses think that President Kennedy had a unique and powerful impact on those associated with him and on our country. The President, and those with whom he surrounded himself, elegantly exhibited and focused on excellence in all things — one’s self, one’s country and one’s world. When American youth of the 1950’s were drawn in large numbers toward a rebellious, “hot rod” mentality, President Kennedy made the pursuit of excellence “cool.”

His answer to the question of what made him happy says it all. As a man with access to all the conventionally believed paths to happiness — good looks, wealth, popularity and power — President Kennedy said:

“The Greeks had it right when they said, ‘Happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.’